Is the pension a "defined benefit" or a "defined contribution" plan (the latter is sometimes also called "cash balance")? Do you have access to the plan documents? The documents should spell out how the lump sum is calculated.
Thanks for the suggestion on finding the plan document. I didn't even think to look for these. I'm on a cash balance formula. Below is the interest portion since they're obviously not giving me any more pay credits. The way I understood it, the interest rate shouldn't have changed since it's an annual number determined in November. Do I have this right?
Interest Credits
In addition to pay credits, your cash balance account also grows each month through interest
credits. Interest credits are:
• Applied to the amount in your cash balance account at the beginning of each month
• Allocated to your account at the end of each month
• Based on the effective annual interest rate of the five-year Treasury note as of the last
business day of November of the previous year, plus 0.25%. It will not be less than 3%
or more than 10%.
Please note: The amount of interest your account earns is subject to change from year to
year. Interest credits will continue to be allocated to your account after June 30, 2012 until
you begin to receive benefits from the Plan.